On the 28th of November, Oak – The Nordic Journal will host the first of a regular series of intimate Oak Salons at Copenhagen’s Winterspring Dessert Bar on the quaint Store Strandstræde. 35 guests will attend the refined gathering; coinciding with the release of Curated Copenhagen – a booklet celebrating Oak’s hometown and the female pioneers who cultivate it creatively.

Dessert and champagne will be accompanied by a centrepiece conversation between Copenhagen Contemporary director Maria Nipper and Galleri Nicolai Wallner curator Gracie Roy Hess. They will discuss how Copenhagen fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The Oak Salon series moves Oak’s community of readers into the tangible world. At each event, a red thread will extend from the setting, to the discourse and to the guests. This is Oak’s own platform to foster the conversations and collaborations it has charted over the last five years.

Curated Copenhagen is a homage to Oak’s hometown and the female pioneers who cultivate its creativity. The booklet presents the ongoing conversation between these female creatives and the city they have chosen to call home. The spaces they have crafted take you on a journey through the best the city has to offer in art, design, architecture and gastronomy.

HIGHLIGHTS:

THE EMBLEMS
A visual and narrative record of Copenhagen’s emblems. Some are icons known from the outside, others are the contemporary signifiers of the insider’s city.

THE FEMALE PIONEERS
A series of intimate portraits of the female entrepreneurs that both inspire and are inspired by Copenhagen. We unfold the singularity of this city – in their own words.

A SPACE OF HER OWN
A refined selection of our favourite spaces in Copenhagen that have been created by female visionaries. Together, these recommendations form an elegant path by which to explore the city.

The sight of a group of 15-year-old boys in awe of an intricate Conrad Willems modular sculpture, or testing out the comfort of a new HEM sofa, is emblematic of the unlikely symbiosis of the 2018 Biennale Interieur.

From the 18th to the 22nd of October, the Belgium city of Kortrijk welcomed the design invasion for the 26th year. For five days, stylists and designers rubbed shoulders with school excursions and Belgian locals.

Oak zigzagged across Kortrijk exploring the landmarks and the little, the integrated and the abrupt, of the city’s design offering.

Biennale Interieur

In an opening address at the centrepiece fair, project coordinator for the Biennale, Dieter Van Den Storm declared that this was not simply a celebration of interior design but a tribute to how humans, “find meaning in living”.

This was evident in the very scenography of the Kortrijk Xpo halls, where Belgian/Netherlands architectural firm Studio Verter had crafted a traversable space inspired by an archetypal piazza. Claudio Saccucci of Studio Verter described a mission to “collect multiple identities” and “different geniuses”.

Although there were more than 200 exhibitors on display in the halls, there was a rare intimacy to the fair that created a synergy between the cultural and commercial value.

At the fairground, the iconic designs of Carl Hansen & Son and Warm Nordic’s classic collection were present, but interwoven were platforms for up-and-coming brands who are stretching out from this heritage.

Swedish lighting design company Oblure introduced their playful video game inspired designs to the Belgian and Dutch marketplace, and IKON KØBENHAVN’s candy coloured tiled tables were vibrant additions to the Nordic design representation.

Interieur 2018 City Festival

The vacant former AZ Groeninge Sint-Maarten Hospital in the centre of Kortrijk was the eerie setting for the accompanying Interieur Festival. In a program called The New Masters, 20 young designers were commissioned with reinterpreting the last 50 years of Biennale Interieur graphic design.

Rather than simply cloaking the clinical backdrop, designers utilised the spectral setting to create curious juxtapositions. Visitors walked from exam rooms to exam room, weaving around gurneys, x-ray machines and nurse’s stations to find the installations.

In one waiting room, floor to ceiling – including house plant – was coated in a 1980s Kvadrat print. Next door, in a dark clinic room, there was cartoon projection about Belgian domestic violence, in which the domestic weapon switched each slide to a different piece of iconic furniture design.

PLAY

Scattered among the urban scene of Kortrijk was PLAY – a city circuit of contemporary art that’s been running since June. Indoor and outdoor pieces from 40 prominent international artists made for an aesthetically pleasing scavenger hunt through the city. Danish Artist Jeppe Hein’s blood orange modified and twisted park benches sat starkly on the waterfront next to the city’s gothic fairy-tale Broelbrug.

Kunsthal Charlottenborg’s ‘Big Art’ Exhibition

23-09-2018

Kunsthal Charlottenborg celebrates scale in their latest exhibition ‘Big Art’ – on display from the 21st of September until the 13th of January.

The exhibition is a selection of 1.1 scaled contemporary compositions that find their origins in creative collaborations between Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and some of modern art’s most distinguished voices. The 1,000 square metres of the gallery’s south wing has been amplified and emphasised by immense pieces from Jeppe Hein, SUPERFLEX, Lars Von Trier, Ai Weiwei and many more.

‘Big Art’ conveys the unique pressure of working with a vast canvas, as well as exposes the fallacy of a distinction between architecture and art. Works that would seemingly be outside the scope of the institutional gallery are returned to their purview in this ground-breaking exhibition.

From the 15th to the 23rd of September, the London Design Festival will take its 16th turn through the English capital. Once again, the festival strikes a balance between celebrating the city of London as a design destination, whilst also highlighting international voices and the collaborative and traversable nature of modern design. The yarn of the 2018 edition is sustainability, with upcycle and re-use as the obvious motifs of the program. The V&A remains the hub and heartbeat for the festival’s 11 design districts, that stretch out across the city. Here is Oak’s agenda for the nine days, highlighting the events that show how the Nordic region fights above its weight in the global design forum.

Designjunction
Spread out over three venues in London’s South Bank is designjunction. Launched in 2011 by industry leaders, this is a new design fair format existing at the cross-section of creativity and commerciality. Through a heavy schedule of pop-up restaurants and boutiques, product launches, installations and industry talks, designjunction connects globally renowned brands with stylists, architects, buyers and the public. Iittala, Icons of Denmark, Gemla and Erik Jørgensen will be exhibiting at the Doon Street location, where Danish consultancy By Form has designed STILL, a restaurant installation that provides a tranquil dining retreat.

Republic of Fritz Hansen Travelling Exhibition
It is the 60th anniversary of Arne Jacobsen’s presentation of the world’s first design hotel – Copenhagen’s SAS Royal Hotel, now the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel. This travelling exhibition is a celebration of that opening as well as a retrospective on the work of the eminent designer. The hotel’s now iconic furniture pieces, that Jacobson created in collaboration with Fritz Hansen, will be on display.

The Skandium Eco TownhouseIn line with the festival’s sustainability theme, Skandium’s four-story South Kensington townhouse has been outfitted exclusively with Scandinavian products that adhere to high ethical standards. Danish family-owned design companies Montana and Skagerak were commisioned with decorating the townhouse to showcase the beauty and vibrancy of conscious design. Montana has curated two floors in their energetic colour blocking style, while Skagerak has adorned the basement and garden with their FSC-certified furniture collection. On the 20th of September, the CEO’s of both companies will join a panel of experts to discuss designing responsibly and how this has been imbued in the Scandinavian sustainable living philosophy.

Henrik Vibskov: The Onion Farm
In the Tapestries Gallery of The V&A, Danish designer Henrik Vibskov has created a large-scale woven installation. The knitted work extends for 25 metres in the gallery room, with woven onions and brushes growing out from the vibrant and tactile structure. Set next to the historic tapestries adorning the gallery’s walls depicting bucolic farming life, this modern interpretation acts as a commentary on today’s mechanised and depersonalised agricultural practice.

Running from the 31st of August to the 2nd of September is CHART; a creative cross-disciplinary fair showcasing contemporary art and design from galleries across Scandinavia.

CHART Art Fair is the centrepiece of the ambitious program, highlighting 20th and 21st-century art from 32 Nordic-based galleries. These pieces will be presented in the gallery rooms and courtyards of Copenhagen’s historic ivy-covered Kunsthal Charlottenborg.

CHART is expanding their reach this year by designating the complementary CHART Design Fair its own space at Copenhagen’s Den Frie Center for Contemporary Art. Here, 12 established and experimental design galleries display their innovative and collectable objects.

Interspersed throughout is the inaugural CHART Social; existing at the cross-section of the two fairs and across the spectrum of performance, music, architecture and gastronomy. This non-profit program includes a series of talks organised by ArtReview, in which some of the world’s most influential curators and art industry insiders will discuss the idea of artistic ownership.

In this sixth edition, CHART’s emphasis on crafting creative alliances between galleries and across disciplines remains paradigmatic of Nordic collaboration.

Christian Puglisi’s Seed Exchange Feast

29-08-2018

As part of Copenhagen’s Cooking & Food Festival, culinary innovator Christian Puglisi – of Copenhagen’s Restaurant Relæ, Mirabelle and Manfreds – invited four international chefs to join him in crafting a six-course meal.

James Lowe from London’s Lyle’s, Lennox Hastie from Australia’s Firedoor restaurant, Will Goldfarb from Room4Dessert in Indonesia, and Jakob Mielcke from Copenhagen’s Mielcke & Hurtigkarl were chosen because they share Puglisi’s commitment to nurturing produce from the soil up.

On the 24th of August, guests had a front row seat to the culinary conversation between the five pioneers, who are each shaping sustainable gastronomy in different corners of the world.

All ingredients were sourced from the Puglisi’s Farm of Ideas; a sustainable agricultural initiative located in Lejre that supplies the produce for his Copenhagen establishments. The meal was served at the long-tables of Puglisi’s Restaurant BÆST in Nørrebro and was presented with wine pairings selected by Federico Orsi from Italian winery Vigneto San Vito and Daniel Milan from Denmark’s Vexebo Vin.

Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival: Frederiksberg Harvest Feast

24-08-2018

The Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival kicks off today with the Frederiksberg Harvest Feast; the long-standing keystone of the festival. Leafy Frederiksberg Allé is closed off from traffic to make way for a 500 metre long-table and 1400 diners, all armed with their own crockery and utensils. The three-course meal is set by a different chef depending on your placement in the dining stretch, but all have a similar allegiance to sustainability and seasonality that are the motifs of Danish cuisine. The communal dinner has not only become the festival’s tradition but a city staple, and is emphatic of Copenhagen’s unique blend of urban ingenuity and country kinship.

Copenhagen Cooking & Food Festival

23-08-2018

Copenhagen’s annual Cooking & Food Festival is about to get underway, with 100 food-centric events scattered across the 10 days between the 24th of August and the 2nd of September. ‘Breaking the New’ is the festival’s 2018 theme – indicative of the Danish culinary metamorphosis that has taken place over the last 15 years, situating the country firmly at the vanguard of the international gastronomic scene. The program is an amalgam of the high and low: from a hotdog competition between seven top chefs to high tea at the newly renovated Radisson Collection Royal Hotel. The festival’s bailiwick is the innovative transplanting of Denmark’s best fare into unlikely settings – tapas in a converted copper tower, a three-course vegan meal in an underground gallery. Throughout the festival, Oak will be unfolding those events that perfectly coalesce food and space.

Oak and 3 Days of Design at Moltkes Palæ

24-05-2018

On the 25th of May, as part of Denmark’s annual 3daysofdesign event, Oak is participating in the ‘Dine, Drink, Daze and Dream’exhibition at Copenhagen’s beautiful Moltkes Palae.

A former royal residence, the space has been curated by design studio All The Way to Paris and will display furniture from established and emerging designers. Hosted by DI, the free event will be a celebration of the creative class and their relationship to space.

Anna Winston, Oak’s Contributing Design Editor, will moderate a panel discussion with Peter Bundgaard Rutzou from Space Copenhagen and Peter Eland from Norm Architects. They will discuss place as a resource for inspiration, as well as how space can be designed to foster both concentration and retreat.

The designers will reflect on the creation and evolution of their own work spaces and how they channel this same energy into developing interiors for their clients. The homes, studios and workshops of architects, artists and designers – so often shrouded in mystery – will be unfolded.

Celebrating Vol.09 at the FvF Friends Space

23-04-2018

To mark the launch of Volume 09, The Creative Spaces Issue, Oak co-hosted an event in collaboration with Freunde von Freunden.

The event was held in FvF’s beautiful Friends Space in Kreuzberg, Berlin’s creative hub. We celebated with a two part discussion of creative spaces with artists Sophie Erlund and Henrik Strömberg and later on writer Saskia Vogel and architect Sigurd Larsen discussed place in translation. Danish food project Rødder provided guests with a superb selection of their modern Nordic fare and Copenhagen-born micro-brewery, Mikkeller, supplied the refreshments.

Held in a space FvF established to congregate a ‘global creative community’, it was an event that epitomized the new issue’s celebration of the spaces that incubate Nordic creativity.

Inside the volume, legendary artist Olafur Eliasson reflects on the collaborative studio that is his ongoing artwork. Fine jewellery designer Sophie Bille Brahe takes us on a tour of the hidden gems of Copenhagen that inspire her work. In this way, The Creative Spaces Issue presents both the spaces that we craft to foster inspiration, as well as the spaces that make us.

Many thanks to FvF for hosting the event and Rødder and Mikkeller for their support.

Nordic Traces Podcasts

07-12-2017

Oak’s new series of podcasts, Nordic Traces, brings the magazine to life through inspiring discussions with creative leaders featured in the new issue. To mark the publication of Volume 8: Breaking New Ground, Oak’s editor-in-chief Karen Orton interviewed chef Christian Puglisi alongside craft beer brand founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø at Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagen, speaking about Puglisi’s pione-ering Farm of Ideas and the Mikkeller craft beer phenomenon. We also hosted a discussion between artist and architect Caroline Sillesen together with food designer Bo Lindegaard – co-founder of experimental food agency, I’m A Kombo.
Listen to the podcasts here

Book launch Huse i Tisvilde

27-10-2017

Book launch of the new book Huse i Tisvilde, Art Direction by Oak Publishing. The book invites us inside some of the beautiful and unique homes in Tisvildeleje, a distinctive old fishing town in Northern Sealand, Denmark.

Oak x Rudo Aperitivo

28-04-2017

Last night we enjoyed a perfect evening of Italian aperitivi and conversation at Rudo in Copenhagen to launch Oak vol. 07. Thank you to Rudo and all of our friends and collaborators for a great party!

Celebrating Vol.06 at the FvF Apartment

31-10-2016

To mark the publication of Volume 06, The Global Local Issue, FvF hosted Oak and a mixer of their communities in the FvF Apartment in Berlin.

Inside the Global Local issue you’ll find both Noma founder Rene Redzepi reflecting on taking NOMA on the road to Tokyo and Sydney and Italian chef Massimo Bottura repurposing food waste in the ‘10 Ideas to Change the World’ piece. It’s a publication that looks at both sides of the coin: from Nordics, like photographer Lina Scheynius who have settled elsewhere in the world to the reverse, international creatives who have laid down roots in the Northern countries.